Pocono students to attend five-day conference in DC

Two area students will be traveling to Washington, D.C., this weekend for the presidential inauguration ceremony Monday.

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By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

poconorecord.com

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Two area students will be traveling to Washington, D.C., this weekend for the presidential inauguration ceremony Monday.

Danielle Marzella, 18, of Tannersville, and Katia Matychak, 16, of Henryville, have both accepted invitations to attend the High School Presidential Inaugural Conference, a five-day celebration of the presidency for leaders of the future.

Marzella, a senior at Pocono Mountain East High School, and Matychak, a sophomore at Scranton Prep, are heading to the event as part of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council's National Young Leaders Program.

The group will watch the inauguration at the National Mall, and have access to events throughout the weekend such as the keynote speech from Condoleezza Rice and an inaugural ball of their own Tuesday.

Matychak spent much of the summer fundraising in order to go to the event. She raised $2,000 selling more than 100 T-shirts emblazoned with a peace sign on the front and some of her other favorite symbols, and a thank you on the back to buyers.

She sold them at fairs and events as far as upstate New York, and sold them through social media as far away as Washington and Oregon.

"I know it sounds corny, but we are America's future," she said. "If we can improve and make ourselves better, we should try to do it."

She said the program isn't all about politics, but leadership.

After attending two of the National Young Leaders Program conferences, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Boston, she couldn't turn down the chance to go to the inauguration conference, when she got the invitation last spring.

An aspiring doctor, Matychak said the experience of the entire weekend, not just the inauguration, is what's exciting to her.

"To be part of this is special," she said. "Just being there, at the inauguration, it's going to be amazing."

Marzella said she had never planned on attending an inauguration, but when she got the offer, she couldn't refuse it.

"I had never really thought of it before, but then I got the invitation," she said. "This is not something that people get to do on a daily basis."

Marzella hasn't decided on a college yet, but she plans to pursue pharmacy at whatever school she does attend.